Portable subscriber units (PSUs), for example, two-way radios, are often used by law enforcement, fire and medical services, and others to provide voice and data communications in a mobile communications network. Portable subscriber units may, for example, be set to a single channel which provides a path for voice and data communications to be transmitted to and received from other radios that are operating on the same channel.
Repeaters are commonly used in mobile communication networks to provide coverage to portable subscriber units in geographical areas where the coverage provided by one or more fixed infrastructure (e.g., a base station) is insufficient. One type of repeater is a digital vehicular repeater (DVR), which (as its name implies) is typically mounted within a vehicle that can travel among different geographic locations. Portable subscriber units within proximity of a vehicle in which a DVR is incorporated can communicate with one another on a single channel provided by the DVR.
A DVR typically includes a radio and a repeater. The radio provides radio communication to fixed network equipment, such as a base station, and the repeater interfaces with one or more portable subscriber units on a conventional channel for supporting talk groups. A talk group is an assigned group of personal subscriber units that share a channel. Personal subscriber units in a talk group can communicate with each other over the channel.
Multiple portable subscriber units can use a single DVR for creating a talk group if the portable subscriber units are all on the same channel. However, the radio can only support one channel of communication at a time, and hence, only one talk group at a time. Accordingly, portable subscriber units must be on the same channel to communicate with one another when communicating through a DVR.
Multiple DVRs can be deployed to a common site. In some implementations, one of the DVRs is designated as a master device, and the other DVRs are designated as slave devices to repeat radio communications. Because each DVR is only capable of providing one physical communication channel, multiple DVRs, configured in such an arrangement, can only support one talk group at a time.
Having a single master DVR may result in having a single failure point. If there is a failure, error, or interruption with the master DVR, then all portable subscriber units may lose service until the problem is resolved.
Accordingly, there is a need for a system and method of aggregating and segregating multiple digital vehicular repeater system automatically.
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The apparatus and method components have been represented where appropriate by conventional symbols in the drawings, showing only those specific details that are pertinent to understanding the embodiments of the present invention so as not to obscure the disclosure with details that will be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of the description herein.